Rory McIlroy :: A poor role model? Hardly!

It’s unlikely there has ever been a 3-iron talked about as much as the one Rory McIlroy threw into a pond during last week’s WGC-Cadillac Championship at Trump Doral.

It’s also unlikely that there has ever been so hysterical a reaction to what was, in itself, a reaction. Some people found it funny. Some didn’t.

But the suggestion made in some quarters that McIlroy is now no longer a good role model for youngsters because of it is as absurd as it is laughable.

Let’s just remind ourselves of Rory’s alleged ‘crime’: rotor-blading a golf club into a lake after an errant shot. One club throw, one time. The great train robbery it ain’t.

The lesson isn’t to suffocate your emotions; it’s to know the best way to process them.

Even so, it was apparently scandalous enough to entice the internet’s indignant element to log on and mouth off. Tweet upon tweet upon tweet was furiously battered out chiding McIlroy for his fit of pique. If people weren’t ‘losing respect’, they were ‘never going to root for him again’.

Some even went so far as to call for the Northern Irishman to be banned for his momentary loss of cool. That’s right – banned.

No such rubbish from James Hahn, however. The winner of the recent Northern Trust Open hit the nail on the head when he tweeted: “Golfers are not role models, parents are. Nothing wrong with Rory throwing club. Now it’s time for parents to properly explain to children why.”

Well said. I genuinely couldn’t agree more.

The lesson isn’t to suffocate your emotions; it’s to know the best way to process them within the confines of reasonable behaviour.

CONTINUES BELOW…

Chucking a club in a lake hardly constitutes unreasonable behaviour. Chucking it into a crowd? Now that would be unreasonable.

To me, Rory McIlroy is golf’s number one player in more than just official world rankings points. Not only is he a tremendously talented player, he is also an erudite, articulate and mature young guy. He speaks well, plays well and behaves well. In short, he conducts himself with integrity and aplomb.

And that’s not to mention the great work he does raising money for various children’s charities through the Rory Foundation or, for that matter, the humanitarian work he has done in places such as Haiti in his capacity as an ambassador for UNICEF.

A poor role model to kids? Do me a favour.

In the grand scheme of things, Rory McIlroy’s antics at Doral don’t even move the needle on the misdemeanour-o-meter.

If any young golfer came to me for advice on who they should be trying to emulate, I’d tell them Rory. Every time. And yes, that includes the club-chucking parts. Why? Because there’s nothing wrong with being human and having a bit of passion. Of course it requires the good sense to know when to do it and when not to but, to be fair to McIlroy, he’s hardly a serial offender.

Throughout professional sport you don’t have to look far for bad role models. If it’s not Premier League footballers spitting at each other, it’s high-profile cyclists bullying their teammates into taking performance enhancing substances and then lying about it for years afterwards.

In the grand scheme of things, Rory’s antics at Doral don’t even move the needle on the misdemeanour-o-meter, so let’s not pretend they do.

Instead, let’s wind the necks in and cut the guy a bit of slack.

Rory McIlroy’s club-throwing :: your thoughts

Do you agree with Michael McEwan that people should lay off Rory McIlroy for his club-chucking antics? Or does he deserve to be punished for the incident? Leave your thoughts in our ‘Comments’ section below.

Michael McEwan is the Deputy Editor of bunkered and has been part of the team since 2004. In that time, he has interviewed almost every major figure within the sport, from Jack Nicklaus, to Rory McIlroy, to Donald Trump. The host of the multi award-winning bunkered Podcast and a member of Balfron Golfing Society, Michael is the author of three books and is the 2023 PPA Scotland 'Writer of the Year' and 'Columnist of the Year'. Dislikes white belts, yellow balls and iron headcovers. Likes being drawn out of the media ballot to play Augusta National.

Deputy Editor